Sunday 15 November 2009

Hand-painted signs of Guatemala

This summer I took the opportunity to visit Guatemala, as my last proper holiday in advance of the impending poverty of studenthood. Guatemala is an incredible place, rich in natural beauty and indigenous tradition, with relatively little influence of US culture, compared to some central American countries.
One particular thing I noticed there was the abundance of these hand-painted signs. They were all over the place! Even the large road-side adverts for multi-national brands such as Coca-Cola are hand-painted. I was unable to get photographs of many of them though, as some of the best examples I saw only from the window of the bus as we sped through rural towns. After graduation (and once I'm out of debt) I plan to go back with take a stock of memory cards and a rented car, and do the job properly.Finally, here's a weird baby-chicken-man mural from the side of a shack in the Caribbean coastal town of Livingston. Livingston is generally quite an odd place - with a crocodile in a swimming pool next to the dock, and one guesthouse built to look like a castle (though it actually resembles a big concrete prison) - but I've no idea what this is all about...

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